On Saturday, Penn State’s Nittany Lions will take on the University of Central Florida Knights in the two teams’ first game of the college football season. They will do so, however, not at Beaver Stadium in Pennsylvania or at the Knights’ Bright House Networks home, but at Croke Park in Dublin, the historic home of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

The game is the eighth regular-season game between NCAA schools in Ireland. Backed by Ireland’s tourism chiefs, it is called “The Croke Park Classic” and even offers a trophy. But it has caused controversy. A Gaelic football semi-final replay scheduled for “Croker”, between Kerry and Mayo, had to be moved to Limerick.

“I think it’s brilliant American Football can come here. It’s brilliant that soccer and rugby was here but I mean it’s a GAA field and it’s our field. There are players that love coming to Croke Park and playing and I just think I was bad planning to put an American football game in our busiest window of the year.”

The last American football game at Croke Park was in 1996 – Notre Dame beat Navy 54-27. The same two teams played out a 50-10 scoreline at the Aviva Stadium, the home of Ireland’s rugby and soccer teams, in 2012.

The arrival of the English rugby team, in 2007, brought fierce controversy over the playing of God Save the Queen, given the two countries’ history and the fact that the stadium was the scene of an infamous massacre by “Black and Tan” troops in November 1920.

Penn State linebacker Brandon Bell grabs a hurling stick, following practice at University College Dublin. Photograph: Joe Hermitt/AP

The process of bringing college football to Ireland, meanwhile, began with a phone call, as the Penn State sex abuse scandal erased postseason prospects until at least 2016. The then head coach, Bill O’Brien, called a friend.

“Billy had called because what he was trying to do because of the probation Penn State was on was get the kids a trip,” UCF coach George O’Leary recalled this week. “I said: ‘Fine, I’d be willing to play that.’ And we worked it out.”

A year of planning later, the Nittany Lions and Knights are set to play what will be the first game outside the US for both teams.

Connections to Ireland are sparse. O’Leary’s grandfather was born in Cork, which is also the hometown of the Knights’ kicker, Sean Galvin. Penn State coach James Franklin’s parents were married in Ireland.

Nor do the locals know much about American football, but controversy aside O’Leary said he expected there to be a lot of interest at a stadium that will swallow up the American 100-yard field, even though its 82,300 capacity lags a little behind Penn State’s cavernous, 107,282-holding home.

“I think the Irish will be at the game,” he said. “I would assume they’d root for Galvin. And probably the name O’Leary doesn’t hurt.”